Posts by TonusOH

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

LMsA: I think he enjoys rubbing people’s faces into it when he takes off on holidays and makes little or no attempt to conceal it.

He lacks self-awareness. He probably noticed that he gets supportive messages when he posts vacation pictures, so he doesn't miss the opportunity to upload them. In light of his claims of financial struggles, he does not recognize how bad this looks. If asked, he would probably gripe that people don't understand the strain he is under and are paying too much attention to his every move, and so on. The notion that people might justifiably draw an adverse conclusion from his actions is incomprehensible to him.

This inability to step outside of himself and see his situation the way an outsider would is one of the biggest reasons that he keeps struggling. If you don't believe that you ever make mistakes, then you cannot learn from your mistakes.

15

Our Kingdom Ministry

by NotFormer in

my understanding was that this was the magazine regularly published for insiders only, unlike the watchtower and the awake!

looking online, it seems that the wt ceased publication of this in 2016. is it due to a name change (it seems to have changed its name several times over the years) or has it been succeeded by a new publication?

or has it ceased to be?.

TonusOH

The four-page Kingdom Ministry is the one I remember. The titles were usually printed in color, and it would be a different color each month. Three or four columns with small text.

57

Love of video games = love of violence? August 2012 Awake!

by sd-7 in

page 4-5:.

"video games: 'the uncomfortable fact is, videogames have an unhealthy obsession with bloodshed,' stated a british magazine for video-game enthusiasts.

it added: 'to some degree, a love of videogames demands a love of violence.

TonusOH

Saul was probably a support class, like a shaman. He was buffing David and letting him do all of the DPS. David, like all melee class players, hogged all the glory. What an ass.

48

No more public WT & Awake?

by mikeflood in

have you guys noticed, this year 2023 no more public edition magazines...i wonder how they are gonna spin that fact.

TonusOH

I can't get over the "we are pleased to inform you" part of the message. So, they're happy that they have ramped back production of the magazines from four per month to two per year?

9

Overheard JW Phone Conversation

by new light in

jw
friends

i was sitting down to lunch yesterday when i heard the man at the table behind me say into his phone "yeah, it's going to be hard since they want us to pioneer in april.".

of course, i was all ears at this point.

next thing i could pick up over the din of a crowded restaurant was "he has to go to the meetings for a year before he can come back.

TonusOH

If the word "soon" means anything from a week to a century, you might be a JW.

13

sinning against the Holy Spirit question

by enoughisenough in

let's assume that the bible is god's word and the men who wrote it were borne along ( inspired ) by holy spirit.

if one sets out to deliberately malign the bible, would that be considered a sin against the holy spirit?.

TonusOH

I think there is only one example of such in the Bible, isn't there? When the Pharisees accused Jesus of exorcising demons using the power of the devil. The reader is to assume that the priests knew that Jesus was using the holy spirit, and said it was demonic power because they wanted to reject Jesus as the messiah. This insult was, Jesus explained, unforgivable.

What would make any other sin fall into this category? And how would one demonstrate this?

24

What would you change?

by ExBethelitenowPIMA in

i’m agnostic so maybe the universe started by chance or by design.. if it was by design (hypothetically) and the bible is the designers word, and jws seem to be the closest to it, then what would be the largest things you would change?.

here are a few ideas.

-do away with the governing body thinking they are gods only channel.

TonusOH

ExB: Tonus which other organisations have love amongst themselves as Jesus said would be his true disciples?

I don't know. That is an interesting claim to try to measure. But this is a first step- does this give you confidence to consider them to have it right? You mention the changes in doctrine over the past 140 years. How does it affect your confidence in them?

JWs are not alone in ascribing changes to new insight provided by god, so they're not unique in making doctrinal changes over time. And if the changes they make do not align with that of other Christian denominations, perhaps it means they have it right. It still leads me to wonder if we should feel comfortable with a god who claims he is not a god of confusion, yet allows such confusion and misunderstanding to affect those who seek to serve him faithfully.

24

What would you change?

by ExBethelitenowPIMA in

i’m agnostic so maybe the universe started by chance or by design.. if it was by design (hypothetically) and the bible is the designers word, and jws seem to be the closest to it, then what would be the largest things you would change?.

here are a few ideas.

-do away with the governing body thinking they are gods only channel.

TonusOH

ExB: If it was by design (hypothetically) and the Bible is the designers word, and JWs seem to be the closest to it,

Seem? So, no one would know for sure, but we could be confident that JWs had the best take? We would need to determine how it is that we can consider them the closest to that true understanding.

If it was by design, and the designer wanted something specific for/from us, I would expect that designer to make it obvious. By showing up and explaining it all, and perhaps by writing the holy book himself, thus providing us with a clear guide that isn't subject to constant interpretation and reinterpretation for centuries on end without any hope of a resolution.

If the JWs were the closest to the truth of the designer, then I would hesitate to change anything unless I understood what it was that made them more accurate than anyone else. Otherwise, we might be moving away from god, not towards him.

83

Do You Think Trump Is Done?

by minimus in

jw
friends

certain forces appear to be trying to make sure donald trump never runs for president again.

some republicans are clearly abandoning trump and of course the democratic press has been saying trump is done!

is trump’s goose cooked?

TonusOH

It is literally a bridge too far.

21

What does this even mean?

by Blotty in

"the son is born of the father by generation, but generation should not be understood in the everyday sense.

the son is derived from the father through pure spiritual generation, through the unlimited sharing of his essence.

so, the birth of the son is an intellectual activity of god.".

TonusOH

It is almost as if the writer is saying that Jesus is an imaginary creation of God's. Or perhaps that God "thought" Jesus into being, though that doesn't square with the description of God giving up some of "His essence." It seems a bit contradictory, if we try to make sense of it.

Is it a defense of the belief in the trinity, with the idea being that Jesus is 'generated' as another facet of God, as opposed to being created as an individual being?